Esther
Chapter 6
1 That night the king could not sleep, so he ordered the record book of past events to be brought and read to him.
2 It was recorded that Mordecai reported Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s guards, who planned to attack King Ahasuerus.
3 The king asked, “What honor and respect has Mordecai received for this?” The king’s servants who served him replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”
4 The king asked, “Who is in the court?” Just then, Haman arrived in the outer court of the king’s palace, hoping to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had set up for him.
5 The king’s helpers told him, “Look, Haman is standing in the courtyard.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”
6 So Haman arrived. And the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king wants to honor?” Haman thought to himself, “Who would the king want to honor more than me?”
7 Haman told the king, “For the man the king likes to honor,
8 Bring the king’s fancy clothes, the horse the king rides, and the royal crown that is placed on his head.
9 Give these clothes and horse to one of the king’s top princes, so they can dress the man the king wants to honor. Then have him ride through the city streets while they announce, “This is how the man the king wants to honor is treated.”
10 The king told Haman, “Hurry and take the clothes and the horse, as you suggested, and do the same for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the palace entrance. Don’t leave out anything you mentioned.”
11 Haman took the clothes and the horse, dressed Mordecai, and led him on the horse through the city streets, announcing, “This is how the man the king wants to honor will be treated.”
12 Mordecai went back to the king’s entrance. But Haman hurried to his home, sad, with his head covered.
13 Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise friends and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai is from the Jewish people, and you have started to lose to him, you will not win against him, but you will definitely lose to him.”
14 While they were still chatting with him, the king’s attendants arrived and quickly took Haman to the feast Esther had set up.